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This collection has use restrictions. For
details, please see the
restrictions.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival
material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are
physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available
through the World Wide Web. See the
Duplication Policy section for more information.

The Mini Page, created by Betty Debnam Hunt, a white woman from Raleigh, N.C., and first published
in 1969, is a weekly feature delivered through about 500 newspapers across the United
States. Targeted mainly at children, their parents, and educators,
The Mini Page covers a different topic each week and teaches readers through puzzles, recipes,
activities, and pictures. The collection consists of volumes of weekly editions of
The Mini Page, 1969-2007, and other
Mini Page publications and products, including joke and activity books; ephemera; and booklets
and resource guides on topics including the United States government and history,
environmentalism, learning foreign languages, and healthy living habits. The collection
also includes school newspaper contest materials; reader correspondence and survey
materials; office files of advertisement ideas and elements, correspondence, contracts,
clippings, awards, and speeches; slides of classroom scenes, the Mini Page office,
and trips to Saudi Arabia, China, Colorado, and Taiwan; and data digital video discs
of
Mini Page elements, 1996-2007.

Users are informed that materials in this collection are (a) available for nonprofit
educational research/teaching/scholarship purposes only; (b) permission for printing
multiple
copies from this collection must be obtained from the Universal Press Syndicate
prior to use; and
(c) permission for linking or downloading materials in this collection must be
obtained from
the Universal Press Syndicate prior to use.

Restrictions to Use

Copyright is held by the Universal Press Syndicate, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal,
Inc.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the
Mini Page
Collection #5437, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Betty Debnam Hunt of Raleigh, N.C., in August 2009 (Acc.
101159), October 2010 (Acc. 101364: Volumes 42-44), March 2012 (Acc. 101568), November
2013 (Acc. 101933), January 2016 (Acc. 102497), October 2017 (Acc. 103392), and March
2019 (Acc. 103551).

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or
confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy
laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. §
132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of
State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.).
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to
identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent
of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under
common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's
private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable
person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no
responsibility.

The following terms from
Library of Congress Subject
Headings
suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the
entire collection; the terms do
not usually represent
discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or
items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's
online catalog.

The Mini Page is a weekly feature delivered through newspapers across the United States.
The Mini Page covers a different topic each week and teaches readers through puzzles, recipes,
activities, and pictures. First published in 1969 and targeted mainly at children,
their parents, and educators,
The Mini Page is syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, a division of Andrews McMeel Universal,
in about 500 newspapers. In May 2007,
The Mini Page was purchased by the Universal Press Syndicate, which had distributed it for 30 years.

Betty Debnam Hunt, a white woman from Raleigh, N.C., graduated from the University
of North Carolina with a political science degree in 1952 and obtained her master's
degree in education at Duke University in 1963. She worked as an advertising copywriter,
alumni secretary, public relations professional, and second-grade teacher before creating
The Mini Page in 1969. As creator of
The Mini Page, she took on the roles of author, reporter, editor, artist, and salesperson. Debnam
Hunt received the North Carolina Award and the Newspaper Association of America Lifetime
Achievement Award and was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame,
the Newspapers in Education Hall of Fame, and the Association of Educational Publishers
Hall of Fame. She was married to retired Marine Colonel Richard Hunt (d. 1998).

The collection consists of volumes of weekly editions of
The Mini Page, 1969-2007, and other
Mini Page publications and products, including joke and activity books; greeting cards; bookmarks;
and booklets and resource guides on topics including the United Statesgovernment and
history, environmentalism, learning foreign languages, and healthy living habits.
The collection also includes a mat book of reproduction proofs of
Mini Page characters featured in local advertising campaigns and data digital video discs of
Mini Page elements, 1996-2007.

Additions to the collection include school newspaper contest materials; reader survey
materials; routine office files containing records of early advertisements, letters
of support from readers, most of whom are children, correspondence, news clippings
about the Mini Page and its creator Betty Debnam Hunt, awards, speeches, files on
mini page characters and miscellaneous features, and printed ephemera; slides of classroom
scenes, the Mini Page office, and trips to Saudi Arabia, China, Colorado, and Taiwan;
and additional publications for kids on topics such as cooking and United States history
and government.

Expand/collapse Series 2. Other Mini Page Publications and
Products, 1980-2009.

About 800 items.

Greeting cards,
The Best of The Mini Page,
1977;
All-New The Best of The Mini Page,
1982; joke and activity books; bookmarks; and booklets and resource guides
on topics including the United States government and history,
environmentalism, learning foreign languages, and healthy living habits.
Also includes a mat book of reproduction proofs of
Mini Page characters featured in local advertising
campaigns.

Expand/collapse Series 4A. Contest and Survey Materials, 1979-2003 (Addition of March 2012)

3500 items.

Acquisitions Information: Accession 101568

Arrangement: Chronological by year.

This addition contains two groups of material: Group 1, School newspaper contest materials
and Group 2: Reader survey materials. Group 1 consists of submissions to a Mini Page
contest of newspapers created by elementary students. Group 2 consists of surveys
filled out by readers.

OPF-05437/5

OPF-05437/6

OPF-05437/7

OPF-05437/8

OPF-05437/9

Expand/collapse Series 5A. Office Files, 1971-2007 (Addition of January 2016)

50 items.

Acquisitions Information: Accession 102497

Office Files include records of early advertisement drafts, a signed petition for
the Mini Page's inclusion in the
Virginia Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), letters of support from readers, correspondence and newspaper clippings
about the Mini Page, news clippings regarding Mini Page creator Betty Debnam Hunt
and the Mini Page archive, and her nomination for inclusion in the National Women's
Hall of Fame in 2000.

PF-5437/39

Expand/collapse Series 5A. Office Files, 1970s-2010s (Addition of March 2019)

1000 items.

Acquisitions Information: Accession 103551

Records include awards, speeches, contracts, and correspondence related to the development,
publication, and recognition of the Mini Page, a scrapbook of appreciation letters
and photographs, and letters from readers who are chiefly children.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic identities for individuals and families represented
in collections. To determine ethnic identity, we rely on self-identification; other
information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records,
press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection
materials. Omissions of ethnic identities in finding aids created or updated after
August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess
or an individual's preference for ethnicity to be excluded from description. When
we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@email.unc.edu.